Los Angeles Clippers guard Austin Rivers walks to the bench, after the head injury he sustained in the first half began bleeding, during the second half of Game 6 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday, April 29, 2016, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer)

PORTLAND >> Austin Rivers once said he could score 100 on Bob Cousy, but he looked like he just went 10 rounds with Rocky Marciano.

He was on the Moda Center floor, blood pouring from separate gashes above and below his left eye. The Clippers were already without Chris Paul. They were already without Blake Griffin. And now Rivers needed a towel to cover the stream coming from his face.

It was a Game 6 TKO, or it was headed that way, but somehow, Rivers and the Clippers got back up.

And they made it to the bell.

It wasn’t good enough, not for anyone, but Friday, the Clippers fought — more literally than usual.

Coach Doc Rivers sat at the podium after his team was eliminated from the postseason in the first round, and he compared the 106-103 loss to a boxing match. It’s the kind of easy comparison most people would make after a game like that.

But maybe he earned the right to use the cliché, especially considering the drop of blood on the right shoulder of his white dress shirt.

It was Austin’s, something he didn’t even notice until long after the final buzzer.

“That’s what he is, a street fighter,” Doc said with pride as he walked off into the offseason.

It was a momentary smile on a night that included as many bloodshot eyes as bruised ones.

“That team had more heart than any team I’ve ever seen,” Doc Rivers said of his players.

The Clippers locker room was full of people emotionally and physically bruised.

J.J. Redick was both.

Despite a heel injury that caused pain almost every time his left foot hit the court, Redick kept running, kept planting, kept cutting. It’s why Doc Rivers walked over to him in the locker room, embraced him and thanked him for his sacrifice.

Paul was home with a broken hand. Griffin tried to play on his torn quad, but eventually it gave up.

And, in the face of elimination, the physical pain just got worse.

There was the elbow to Austin Rivers’ face. There was Wesley Johnson, playing on plantar fasciitis so severe he struggled to walk out of the locker room. There was DeAndre Jordan, who could barely slip his right foot into his all-black sneakers because of an ankle injury that required x-rays.

“I’ll live,” he said.

But, the team won’t – not this version.

The Clippers certainly won’t be able to re-sign all of their free agents, a group that includes Austin Rivers, Jamal Crawford, Cole Aldrich, Jeff Green, Luc Mbah a Moute and Johnson.

Rivers knows it. The players know it.

Redick’s lip quivered when asked about the emotions in the locker room after the loss.

“It was a great group. It was interesting just now hearing players talk about it,” he said, fighting off tears. “I think, you know, you spend time in the NBA and you realize that not every group is a good group. You’re grateful.

“Grateful.”

The “good group” went beyond players liking each other. It was about players sacrificing for each other.

Rivers scored 21 points (with eight assists), second to Crawford’s 32. He was good, but as the Clippers have been each of the last five years, not good enough.

And when you’re not, it hurts like hell.

“If you don’t win a title, every year you have a speech. And, I don’t know if I’ve ever been in a locker room where they’re easy,” Doc Rivers said. “They’re emotional. A lot of tears. From a coaching standpoint, you love that.

“I tell my guys every year, at least teams that I think have a chance, you’ve got to start the year with the belief … and you have to be willing to get your heartbroken.”

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